THE WAPPING CENTRE

The Wapping Centre for Culture and Immigration | 2012

Proposal for a culture and immigration centre facing off against St George's in the East, a Hawksmoor church built in the 18th century to assert the dominance of Christianity over the burgeoning immigrant communities of Wapping. The building’s organisation is based on the belief that identity is unfixed and fluctuating, and not particularly suited to a set of pre-defined tests. The process of naturalisation takes place across a number of unfixed platforms: reading rooms which provide intimate spaces for individual learning. These offer the provision, through the use of fabric, to become classrooms for more structured learning as required. The spaces act as follies when they detach from the building and travel out into surrounding neighbourhoods, bringing their user-defined notion of learning out into the community.